Waking
by dollsom
Summary: PostChosen, Giles returns to the Hellmouth on a mission, and unexpectedly finds something he thought was lost forever
1. Chapter 1

Title: Waking  
Rating: FRT/PG for violence  
Pairings, Characters: Giles/Jenny (what else?); Willow  
Spoilers: Chosen  
Summary: Giles returns to the Hellmouth on a mission, and unexpectedly finds something he thought was lost forever  
Disclaimer: Not mine, not making me any money

**Chapter One**

Seven were in a circle in the centre of the crater. Eyes closed, chanting in a language so ancient and obscure that even Giles couldn't recognize it. He had left the others - slayers, witches (no psychics on this trip) - elsewhere, fighting the abominations that the former hellmouth had spawned, that, he hypothesized, these seven waking dead had been a key part of creating.

As he approached the circle he drew his automatic and aimed it at the base of the skull of one of the Seven, a man his own age. He shot him, execution style. None of the others seemed to notice.

They were being used, Giles figured that much. He didn't know how they had been raised, or by whom, but there was nothing good behind it. They were more than zombies, they certainly looked as they had in life, but less than human, less than vampires even.

The next one was a girl. She might have been ten when she died. He shot her too, and she collapsed next to the man, blood and brains matting the fine blonde hair that reminded Giles of Buffy, in passing. The chanting continued.

Willow had suggested that there might be some way to help them, but it was an off-chance, and there was no telling if whatever had raised the seven could still control them for its own purposes. They shouldn't have been alive at all. Killing them was just setting things right again.

Two teenaged boys next. Perhaps they had been friends in life, attending Sunnydale High, leaving overdue library books upon their death.

They seemed human. It didn't feel like he was killing zombies, or demons. It felt like killing people. Which was exactly why Giles had decided that this wasn't a job for the Slayers.

By now, the chanting had stopped. The three remaining waking dead watched him, with wide empty eyes, though he avoided looking at their faces. A woman Joyce's age... Then a boy who might have been six, whose skull shattered like china. Neither of them did anything to stop him. One more.

Giles made a mistake. He looked at her face.

She was looking at the bodies on the ground with a vague kind of confusion. Tears were rising in her dark eyes, and those seemed to confuse her as well, as she tried to blink them back. Her mouth moved silently, as she attempted to continue the chant, but couldn't without her partners.

As Giles stared at her, the gun slipped from his hand. Her head snapped up, like an animal on hearing an approaching predator. A look of recognition passed over her face, followed by one of fear. Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed.

Giles caught her before she hit the ground. He cradled her; she felt light and fragile, like empty eggshells. He feared that by interrupting the ritual he had already sealed her death - how easy it was to ignore the inner voice that told him she should be dead, that he ought to kill her. But the fact that she was breathing weakly in his arms was suddenly all that concerned him, as he remembered what it was like to lose her. He picked her up and carried her out of the crater to where the field team had set up a medical station.

The medics on hand were surprised at the strange woman Giles brought to them. They cast questioning glances in his direction, but didn't say anything; for once Giles didn't flinch at the deference the new recruits showed him.

"Her vitals are really low," one of them informed him. "How is she even alive?"

"I don't know."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Hi, Ms. Calendar," Willow said as she sat down on the floor, across from her former teacher, and crossed her legs. "Do you remember me?"

Jenny stared at the young woman a long time, her gaze slowly focusing. "Willow..."

Giles started at the sound of her voice; it was the first time she had spoken since he'd carried her out of the Hellmouth. He'd brought her to the London office of the Council, and gave her one of the small dorm rooms they had for guests or emergencies.

Willow smiled encouragingly and pointed to where Giles stood, leaning against the wall behind her. "And do you know who that is?"

His heart beat faster as she turned to him, too many painfully familiar expressions flitting across her face. Finally she broke into wry grin that made her eyes flash brightly and the rest of Giles' world vanish. "Hi there, England."

For a moment it was if he was back at the highschool, feeling just as much like a teenager as any of the students, giddy and romantic. Then Giles remembered the past six years. "How -"

Willow held a hand up for him to be silent. "Jenny, look at me."

* * *

When Willow was done, she stood with Giles by the door. They spoke quietly.

"How did everything go in Sunnydale?"

"It's taken care of. All targets accounted for. Several injuries but nothing serious. We're still monitoring the area in case of future developments," he said as though reading from a field report, not paying attention to the words. His attention was on Jenny, who was sitting on the window sill, watching raindrops hurry down the glass.

"And the other six?"

"They're dead."

Willow nodded, unsurprised. "Do you know why they were chosen?"

Giles blinked and turned towards her. "No." He couldn't believe he hadn't realized that might be significant. "I'll look into it."

"Maybe you should assign -"

"I'll look into it," he assured her.

"Does Buffy know?" she asked suddenly.

Giles tensed. "Buffy has other things to worry about." Despite their reconciliation before facing the Turok-Han, his relationship with the Slayer had only become more distant over the past year. He supposed they were both to blame for that.

Willow nodded again, and glanced over her shoulder before continuing. "It feels like she's... caught between. She's not present enough to have full control of herself. It's like she's going back and forth between her body and... wherever she was, but she can't get back into either."

He looked towards Jenny, her slim fingers tracing paths down the window, and was awash with pity, and anger, and a desperate desire to _do _something. "Can we help her?"

Willow watched him watching Jenny as she considered her answer. "You know there's at least one way we can."

Giles' eyes snapped back to the witch.

"Whoever did this won't be able to take advantage of her again," she said calmly. "And she won't have to suffer any more."

He opened his mouth to respond before realizing that she was right. Of course. It was the logical thing to do. The most humane. But Giles thought of the way Jenny had smiled at him and couldn't bring himself to make a decision. He cast his eyes downwards.

"But... that would involve killing," Willow continued, "in cold blood. And I couldn't do that."

Giles clenched his jaw, hearing accusations in her voice. But then he felt her hand on his arm, and when he looked up he saw Willow was looking at him with sympathy.

"We'll come up with something."


End file.
